Montane Rangelands in a Changing World

Posted 16 January 2020 by under Announcements & Notices • Journal: African Journal of Range & Forage Science
Montane Rangelands in a Changing World

A special issue of the African Journal of Range and Forage Science focusing on Montane Rangelands in a Changing World will be published in 2021. 

The Special Issue welcomes contributions on all aspects of montane rangelands, particularly from southern Africa, but will also consider high quality contributions from around the world. The Journal will especially welcome papers on montane rangelands that juggle the same complexities as Southern Africa. Submissions may include original research, reviews and meta-analysis. 

The lead guest Editor for this special issue is Ralph Clark. Clark is the Director of the Afromontane Research Unit, University of the Free State, and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the Grassland Society of Southern Africa.

Additional guest Editor's include Tim O'Connor, an Observation Science Specialist at the South African Environmental Observation Network and Kyran Kunkel who is not only an Affiliate Professor on the Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana but a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute. He is also the Director of the Science Program for American Prairie Reserve.

Montane rangelands in Southern African contribute a valuable component to our overall rangeland. Although not as productive – being dominated in the east by Sourveld, and in the west by arid shrublands – montane rangelands are increasingly important as their management/governance intersects directly with the water-food-carbon nexus in Southern Africa.

While only covering a small proportion of the landscape, their management or mismanagement impacts much larger areas of the region through cascade effects on our mountain—produced ecosystem services and downstream beneficiaries. 

“Montane” refers to ruggedness and not elevation as the primary determinant – for example the Highveld is high elevation but not rugged, and cannot really be called mountainous, while the Lebombo Mountains are relatively low elevation but are rugged. Rangeland in rugged environments comes with particular complexities that drive unique management and governance systems as well as unique indigenous knowledge systems and innovations. 

Guest Associate Editors assigned to the Special Issue incluge Ntebohiseng Sekhele, Kevin Kirkman and Debbie Jewitt. 

The second call for and invitation for abstracts has been launched. The final submission for abstracts will be on 15 March 2020. Full instructions for authors can be located here. 

NOTE: From 5-15 March 2020 abstracts should be emailed directly to the Journal office at journal@grassland.org.za and cc' Ralph Clark at vincentralph.clark@gmail.com.

 

 

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